FILTER Magazine #56

By Loren Auda Poin on November 6, 2012

Emotions seem to glow brighter in the dark; forlorn wavelengths fed through synthesizers can achieve a primal opalescence when done right. Emeralds is one band, like the nearby Purple Rain-drenched starcluster M83, that wields this jazzy, dramatic secret with authority and vim. Its latest effort, Just To Feel Anything, is distinguished by a tendency to worship equally at the altars of early Detroit techno, proto-synth pioneers like Kraftwerk and Popol Vuh, and sci-fi gloom merchant Vangelis. What emerges is a cathartic, theta-wave blend that could score a fighter jet skirmish over a Himalayan peak during a lightning storm and the opening montage of a siren-strobed cop show from 1985 with equal efficacy. And then there are tracks like the last one, “Search For Me in the Wasteland,” an eight-minute melodic viper-coil of gorgeous, bell-like guitars and flanging organs that achieves the most convincing emotional effect of all: utter originality.